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Palestinian officials die in Amman blasts

Two high-ranking Palestinian security officials, a senior Palestinian banker and the commercial attache at the Palestinian embassy in Cairo have died in the bombings in Jordan, the Palestinian envoy to Amman said.

10 Nov 2005 06:58 GMT

The blasts rocked three hotels in Amman on Wednesday

Major-General Bashir Nafeh, the head of military intelligence in the West Bank, and Colonel Abed Allun, a Preventive Security Forces official, were killed in the attack at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Ambassador Attala Kheri told The AP.

Jihad Fatouh, the commercial attache at the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo, and Mosab Khorma, Deputy Chairman of Cairo-Amman Bank in the Palestinian territories, too, were killed in the three nearly simultaneous bombings on three hotels in the Jordanian capital on Wednesday night, Kheri said.

Officials say 57 people were killed and 115 were wounded in the blasts.

Film director injured

Mustafa al-Akkad (R) was injuredand his daughter killed

Syrian film director Mustafa Akkad was wounded and his daughter Rima killed in the blast at the Hyatt hotel, relatives told AFP.

Akkad, 68, was in Jordan to attend a wedding ceremony in Aqaba on Friday, and his 33-year-old daughter had just arrived from Beirut to meet him, sources said.

He was waiting in the lobby when the blast hit, killing his daughter at once.

Akkad was wounded in the neck and lost a great deal of blood but his life was not in danger, relatives said.

Akkad is best known for his 1977 epic The Message: The Story of Islam, starring Anthony Quinn and Irene Papas.